


The Strange Case of Amora and Loki

by WindChimeGhost



Category: Marvel, Super Hero Squad Show
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Gen, Humor, Loki-centric, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 09:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2223456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindChimeGhost/pseuds/WindChimeGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amora sets out to steal an ancient magical medallion from the home of Doctor Strange. When she arrives, she discovers that Loki has gotten there ahead of her and both of them get into a grueling fight over who claims ownership of the medallion. The medallion reacts under pressure and what happens next is more than both Asgardians bargained for and will leave them heading to the Squaddies for help!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Medallion

**Author's Note:**

> ~ Critique not desired ~
> 
> This fanfic originally came about because I had the comical image of Loki and Amora somehow getting stuck together in my head, and started thinking about all of the hilarity that would probably follow.
> 
> I started jotting it down in 2013 and have been writing on it off and on for probably almost a year, sometimes forgetting about it altogether. I thought it was high time that I pulled it back out and get it to the point where I could finally start uploading it to the public and get it out of the way so I can focus my writing attention on other fics.
> 
> This fic takes place sometime after the episode, ‘Night in the Sanctorum!’ and may contain spoilers if you haven't seen this series.
> 
>  
> 
> ‘The Super Hero Squad Show’ and all related characters © Marvel
> 
> Fanfic and plot ©2014 by me (please do not take, use, or edit without my permission)

Amora perched on the edge of the building and kept her eyes glued on the towering walls of the Sanctorum below her. It was an oddly shaped house that stood out from the modern buildings that surrounded it. It might as well have been a castle pulled from the grounds of Europe and placed in the middle of Times Square. Any other time it would be cloaked to blend in with the modern skylines around it or cloaked in invisibility, but not tonight. Tonight its walls stood for all to clearly see.

This house belonged to the sorcerer supreme, Doctor Strange, a secluded hero that preferred keeping to himself and his secretive and unusual ways unless the other heroes had need of him. He spent his days delving in the mystical arts and other dimensions and universes, most of which were too bizarre for the average human mind to grasp.

Amora knew what she was about to do was risky, since Doctor Strange was the only mortal she knew of that was powerful enough and well versed enough in the magical arts to beat her Asgardian magic. She thought back on the time when she had crashed the Squaddies’ helicarrier, and then tried to keep them up all night so they’d be too tired to fight. Doctor Strange had confronted her head to head and beaten her. It was something that was very rare and unexpected. Loki was weak compared to this man. Yes, he was a formidable foe indeed. And dangerous, she thought. It meant she would have to take extra precautions. She admitted to herself that breaking into his house wasn’t the best idea, but she didn’t know how else to obtain the object she sought. She would have to be very careful not to use her magic, since it seemed like Dr. Strange knew about that ahead of time the last time they ran into each other. As if he had sensed its presence.

Moving the backpack she carried to her other hand, the Enchantress sighed impatiently as she glanced down at the diamond-studded watch on her arm. Despite it being late into the night, the lights in the Sanctorum were still on. How late did this man stay up?

As if to answer her question, the last remaining light on this side of the Sanctorum suddenly went out and the house went dark and still.

“Well, it’s about time,” she said to herself as she adjusted the backpack on her back and approached the edge of the building again. She bounded into the air and flew, or rather floated, downward towards the ground, landing softly, without a sound and proceeded to inch her way over toward the nearest window. Looking around her carefully, she slid the backpack off her shoulders and began pulling out a couple of tools and set to work prying the window open. She felt dumb and clumsy at what she was doing, since she had always used her magic to get into wherever she needed to be. Doing the normal breaking-in work of a burglar was new to her. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she struggled to open the stubborn window quietly. The crowbar slipped once and hit the glass. She thought she had broken it, but thankfully she hadn’t. After several attempts, the window finally gave way, the wood frame splintering and the whole window sliding upward slightly; enough for her to fit her hand under it and push it up all the way. She slid inside and crouched low to the floor in case the noise had succeeded in waking Strange.

While she waited and listened for any movements, she looked around the room she was in. What she could make out in the city light that came through the window it was full of pictures of eyeballs, statues of animals and grotesque monsters, and suits of armor. A few pedestals displaying a mixed array of magical items, talismans, jars, and boxes were oddly placed in the middle of the room, making it almost look like some sort of weird museum crossed with a Halloween haunted house. This was the first time she had been inside Dr. Strange’s house, and she had to admit that it gave her the creeps. Even though she herself dealt in magic, this man’s house was a bit too much even for her. More so than ever she wished to find the object she was looking for so she could get out of the place.

Getting up from the floor, Amora turned her flashlight on and softly made her way toward the pedestals, looking over the items on each one. Not finding the object of her desire, she turned and walked out into the hallway. Creepy noises, ghastly shrieks and moans, and other strange and inhuman noises echoed throughout the house’s interior and met her ears. A dark mist appeared to consume her as she walked down the length of the wide passageway. More of Strange’s creepy décor continued into this part of the house, lining both sides—suits of armor, statues of robed figures and huge animals, shields, weapons, crests, glass display cases full of trinkets, and odd, random things that really had no name or description in the human language. Only Doctor Strange knew the real name for them, and their purpose. It had the appearance of a big game hunter’s house, only far more eerie and… well… strange.

Something fluttered over Amora’s head and she swung her light around to see what it had been. Not finding anything, she started walking again. Her first instincts were to shoot whatever was around her with a burst of magic, but she restrained. She tried her best to keep herself calm and composed. Shooting off magic would be like setting off alarms, and she didn’t need that happening.

Lightning suddenly flashed through the windows in each room she passed that had a door open. Funny, she didn’t remember seeing any storm clouds when she had been outside. The bright flashes of light illuminated the details of the hall she walked through, giving her a better look at the statues. The robed figure that happened to be standing beside her, which beforehand gave all impressions of being some kind of monk, had the livid face of a snarling demon underneath its hood. Despite herself, Amora jumped and involuntarily backed away, keeping her light pinned on the statue as if she expected it to move and the light would prevent such actions from taking place. Shuddering, she quickly moved on, ducking through the first opened doorway she could reach, if not for anything else but to get away from the dark horrors that plagued the hallway.

She had no idea how she would manage to find her way back to the room she had entered the Sanctorum through since the place seemed like a dizzy maze of endless corridors and rooms, giving one a feeling of being inside a fun house. She would never admit it openly, but she was afraid of getting hopelessly lost with no way of finding her way out again without alerting Strange to her presence. She was also scared to go poking around in too many places lest she accidentally unlock some unimaginable horror that the sorcerer had tucked away. Something told her that this place could very easily turn into a Pandora’s Box if it wasn’t handled properly. And knowing Doctor Strange… He probably had the actual Pandora’s Box somewhere.

Sighing with relief, Amora glanced around the room she now stood in. It was a large, long room full of stone pillars and even more pedestals containing more magical items. One in particular caught her eyes. It was a pedestal at the farthest corner of the room. On top of it lay a small, flat wooden box having gold trim. Yes, that had to be it. Smiling, she made her way toward it.

Amora slowly approached the wooden box, grinning at the thought of holding the mystical treasure inside. Her hands shook with excitement so much that it was hard to keep her light steady. She had read about it in ancient texts and had seen faded drawings of it in old scrolls. She done research upon research and had found out that it was one of the most powerful and mystical items in the Nine Realms. The location of it was, for the longest time, unknown until she happened to come across an old Dark Elf sorcerer in Svartalfheim who had told her that it was in the possession of a mortal human wizard on Midgard. She knew right away who he meant.

Before Amora’s hand could touch the box, she heard a faint hissing noise. Pulling her hand away quickly, she backed away and looked around to see where the source of the noise was. It didn’t sound good. In fact it almost sounded like a… She suppressed a yelp when her eyes landed on a large cobra coiling around the base of the pedestal. It turned its head up to look at her, winking once. A childish laugh bellowed up from the depths of its throat, seeming to echo throughout the room. Slowly the snake inched its way up the pedestal, stopping occasionally to glance at the blond-haired woman.

“Enchantresssssss,” it said, flicking its tongue out, “Heheeheeheeeehooo! Looking for thisssssss?” the cobra swung its tail around to reveal a golden medallion hanging on a gold chain. The light reflected off its shiny surface and almost blinded the sorceress. She just barely caught sight of some sort of ancient symbol in the middle of it before it disappeared behind the pedestal again. It was indeed the item she sought. “You’re too late, Enchantressssss. The medallion isssss minnnne.”

“H—how do you know who I am?” Amora blinked. “Wait a minute…” she mumbled, “That voice sounds familiar.” She looked closer at the snake and saw familiar green eyes staring back at her. He might have been exceedingly good at shape-shifting, but he had always had difficulty masking his eyes. It never failed that they gave him away. Or rather gave him away among those who knew him.

Amora felt her mouth drop open, then her face turned into an irritated scowl.

“YOU!” she seethed through her teeth.

The cobra quickly curled itself up the remaining few inches of the pedestal, poking its head over the box and into Amora’s face, its neck hood flaring out.

“BOO!” the snake said before giggling.

“LOKI!” Amora shouted. There was a puff of smoke and where the snake had been there stood Loki grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

“You are so right, Enchantress.” Loki continued grinning, playfully twirling the medallion around by the chain.

“Oooooooooooo!” Amora gritted her teeth in anger, her face flushing red. “How did YOU get in here??? Surely you didn’t teleport. Dr. Strange would have sensed your use of magic.”

“Ah, ah, ah, that’s for me to know and you to find out.”

“Okay, fine, just give me that medallion and there won’t be any trouble.” Amora reached for the glittering gold disc, but before she could touch it, Loki pulled it away.

“Sorry, no can do. The medallion is mine, witch. I was here first. Finders keepers, as they say.”

“But I spent a year researching and trying to find that medallion. It belongs to ME!”

Loki stuck his tongue out. “Tough,” he looked the medallion over. “What does this thing do, anyway? Apparently it’s something good; otherwise you wouldn’t be so desperate to get your hands on it.”

“If you don’t know what it does, then why did you get here ahead of me and take it out of the box?” Amora lifted an eyebrow.

Loki pursed his lips, his jaws working thoughtfully as he continued to run his thumb over the surface of the medallion. He carefully watched Amora out of the corners of his eyes, his lips curling into a devious, impish smile.

“I just happened to be in the neighborhood.” he replied. “Actually, I was here looking for something else.”

Amora snorted and rolled her eyes, not believing the obvious lie. Catching the trickster off guard, she suddenly reached across the pedestal and snatched the medallion out of his hand.

“Hey! Give that back!” Loki reached and grabbed hold of the medallion’s chain and tried pulling it loose of Amora’s grip.

“I don’t think so,” she grunted, trying her best to pry each one of Loki’s fingers loose of the treasure. Once the last finger was pushed away, she moved the medallion out of the trickster’s reach, far over her head. Loki stood, mouth gaping open. He eyed the sparkly gold disc. He was about to bound into the air, but stopped.

“Don’t you dare fly,” Amora warned, waggling a finger at him. “If you do, Dr. Strange might notice and we’ll both be in trouble.”

Loki sighed and then grinned. “Ya know, Enchantress, you should never tell the trickster of Asgard not to do something.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’ll just do it anyway,” Loki laughed hysterically as he flew up, snatching the medallion from Amora’s hand as he went over. When she realized what had happened, she blankly looked at her empty hands and turned to look at Loki floating in a relaxing pose, close to the ceiling. He grinned as he teasingly held the medallion up for Amora to see.

“You fool!” she growled. “What if Dr. Strange senses your magic and comes out here?”

“Wellllll, by then it’ll be safe for me to teleport out of here, so that means…” he tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully. “Ohhhhh, yeah, you’ll take all of the blame! Hah!”

By now, Amora’s temper was about to burst. She looked around her for something she could use that wouldn’t need magic. Turning, she picked up the empty box the medallion had been in and threw it at the trickster. It hit him in the face, throwing his levitation off and making him swerve haphazardly in mid-air like an out-of-control airplane until he regained control.

“Ow! Why you…” Loki rubbed the pain from his face and shot a blast of magic toward the Enchantress. She stepped out of the way and it hit one of the stone columns instead. She shielded her face as pieces of the column went flying all over the surrounding area. Amora couldn’t believe what Loki had just done.

“You just used your magic!”

“Yeah, I did.” Loki looked at his hands and then giggled childishly. Oddly enough, the house was still quiet. Amora thought for sure that Dr. Strange would have come out the moment Loki shot the first blast, not to mention they were making enough noise to wake the dead, but he didn’t. After looking nervously around, Amora turned to shoot her own blast of magic back at Loki in defense. As if lying on the floor, the trickster simply rolled over on his stomach, allowing the blast to pass on by.

He yawned. “Really? Is that the best you can do?”

“ARGH!!” Amora clinched her fists and stomped her foot. “Get down here this instant! I’ve had all I can take from you! You—you idiot!”

“Yeah, like I’m gonna come down there and let you kill me.” Loki rested his chin in the palm of his hand and let the medallion dangle and twirl in the air below him.

“Alright, if it’s war you want, trickster, it’s war you’re going to get. But good!” Losing her temper completely, Amora no longer cared what happened. It was late, she was tired, she was stressed out, and she wanted her medallion. She levitated off the floor and started pummeling Loki with all of the magical blasts she could muster. The poor trickster wasn’t prepared for the onslaught and ran in place in the air a few seconds before retreating behind the nearest column. Before Loki completely disappeared, Amora managed to aim one final magical blast just right and caught the trickster directly in the bottom. The high-pitched squeal he made was music to Amora’s ears.

“Oooooh, you’re gonna pay for that one, Enchantress! You’re SO gonna get the horns!” Loki poked his head out from behind the column. Judging by his movements, she could tell he was vigorously rubbing the sting out of his rear. She couldn’t help herself and started laughing.

“Serves you right, little brat.” said Amora with a smirk.

Mumbling, Loki raised his hand and shot a blast toward her, of which she blocked easily enough, although the move required the use of both hands and forced her to drop her flashlight. She smiled and slowly backed away at an angle, not taking her eyes off Loki. Just as she thought, the trickster slowly came out from behind his hiding place and hovered in the air to get a better aim. He still clutched the medallion tightly in his gloved hand, using his free hand to conjure his magic.

“That’s not fair! Stay still so I can blast you!” said Loki.

Amora laughed. “No battle is ever that easy, trickster.” She took advantage of this opportunity and shot a magical blast that hit Loki’s stomach, knocking him backwards and into a large chest on the floor behind him. Much to Amora’s surprise, the trickster disappeared down in the chest before it snapped closed. A few minutes of silence passed and Loki suddenly shot upwards through a hole that randomly materialized in the floor behind Amora before bouncing off the ceiling, a column, and landing in an unceremonious heap on the floor.

“Owwwwww… Wh—what happened?” he groaned, a dazed look in his eyes. “Did someone get the license number of that planet that hit me?”

“Where did you go?” Amora asked, approaching Loki.

“Just five more minutes, Mama,” Loki mumbled, his eyes closing again.

Amora nudged him in the side with her foot. When he didn’t respond, she drew her foot back and gave him a swift kick in the butt that sent him sprawling forward.

“OW!” Loki threw his hands back to cover his rear. He scowled at the Enchantress, pooching a lip out.

“Where did you go?” she repeated.

“How should I know?” Loki said irritably. He sat up, rubbing his head with one hand and his rear end with the other. “I saw things that should have never been seen… Hey!”

Amora bent over and picked up the medallion off the floor. The trickster reached out and hooked a finger around the chain and held on as Amora flew into the air. Wondering why the medallion was so heavy, she looked down to see a grinning Loki staring up at her.

“What does it take to get rid of you?” she angrily shouted.

“Nothing, sweetheart, I’m here to stay. Now hand over the bling.”

“NEVER!” she shrieked, shaking the necklace. No matter what she did, Loki continued to hang on. What was worse is that Loki flew up to come face to face with the sorceress. Both struggled, twirled, and pushed each other back and forth in the air as they tugged on the medallion between them.

“It’s mine! I saw it first! I was here first!” Loki grunted, trying to pull the medallion back on his side.

“If you want to get technical, I saw it first… in an old scroll.” Amora yanked the medallion back on her side.

“You saw a picture of it in an old scroll.” Loki tugged on the medallion. “It doesn’t count.”

“Says who?”

“Me,”

“You’re a liar.”

“Ouch, you got me right here.” Loki patted his heart.

Amora ignored Loki and gave the medallion an extra hard tug. At the same time, Loki also tugged on it.

Then it happened.

A brilliant bright light burst from the medallion and the round disc started to glow. A strong wind blew through the room, snatching both Amora and Loki in it and spun them around as if they had been caught up in a whirlwind.

“WHA—WHAT’S HAPPENING??” Loki shouted over the rush of the wind. There was a hint of fear in his voice.

“I DON’T KNOW, BUT I’M PRETTY SURE IT’S YOUR FAULT!” Amora shouted back, her teeth feeling like they were going to be jerked clear out of her mouth.

“OH YEAH, GO AHEAD AND BLAME ME!” Loki shouted back. “WHY DO YOU THINK THIS IS MY FAULT?”

“BECAUSE IT USUALLY IS!” Amora gasped out before the wind jerked her around once more, turning her upside down and then back around at speeds that reached far beyond any theme park ride.

The whirlwind became stronger and faster, whipping them around and around in a blur of wind and light until their conversation was lost. As quick as it started, there was another burst of bright light along with an odd sounding ‘splurt’ and the room became dark again.


	2. A Sticky Situation

When the wind died abruptly, it was like a massive hand suddenly let go of them. Amora, Loki, and the medallion came crashing down on the floor with a hard thud and a clank.

“OUCH!” Loki shouted.

“You don’t have to shout anymore.” Amora whispered, trying to keep her temper in check. “Now… get… off… me.”

Loki moved to get up, but something held him in place. He tried moving his arms, but they were… stuck. Fear swept over him.

“Amora…”

“What?”

“I can’t get up. I’m—I’m stuck… or something. I can’t move!”

“I’m not falling for anymore of your tricks. Now, GET OFF ME!!”

“Amora, it’s no trick and I’m telling the truth. For once, I’m telling the truth! I can’t move!” Loki’s voiced was laced with panic.

Amora brushed her hair out of her face and prepared to get up. If she had to, she’d throw him off. Prince or no prince, she was tired of his pranks. She pulled herself up a few inches off the floor and stopped. She, too, couldn’t move. Her right arm was free, but her left one was stuck fast in something. Working herself around, she found that she could move the fingers of her left hand just a bit, but that was all. Feeling around with that hand, she clasped onto something and gave it a squeeze.

“Awww… I love you too.” Loki said with a giggle. “Really, Enchantress, if you wanted to hold my hand you should have said so. You didn’t have to go through all of this to get my attention.”

Amora just sighed and mumbled something under her breath that sounded vaguely like ‘idiot’. “Where’s my flashlight?”

“I think it rolled over behind that column. There, right there. I see a little bit of light on the wall.”

“What’s wrong with us? Why can’t we move? It’s like we’re—”

“Stuck together?” Loki finished. “I… think we are.” Loki mustered up what little strength he had and struggled to pull his arm away from Amora. Even in the darkness they could see some sort of strange webbing or goo stretch between his arm and Amora’s body before Loki’s arm snapped back in place.

“OW!” Amora shouted, falling over onto the floor again, taking Loki with her. “You did that on purpose!”

“No, I didn’t,” Loki grunted, “But I’m glad it happened anyway. You can consider it payback for that magic blast you shot me in the rear with.”

“Would you like another shot to the rear?”

“No…” Loki whimpered.

“Then I suggest that you shut up.”

Amora regained control of herself and got to her feet after three or four comical attempts. Loki remained silent and refused to help, allowing his body to move with Amora and feeling like a dead weight on her left side. She took a few steps toward where her flashlight was, only to be jerked back. She turned to face Loki.

“Are you going to help or not? I told you to be quiet, not pretend like you don’t exist. In case you don’t know, you feel like a sack of rocks tied around me.”

Loki turned an annoyed look at the Enchantress. “Hey, I resent that!”

“Start walking, moron!” she reached and pinched his leg.

“Ouch!” Loki squealed and shot Amora a cold glare. “Who are you to give orders? And I’m not a moron! My intelligence level far exceeds Thor’s.”

Amora rolled her eyes. “I’m older than you are. That gives me the right to give you orders. Now move your legs, horn head. We’re going to have to take steps and walk together.”

Loki grunted irritably as Amora took a step forward, forcing him to move with her. Slowly, they took small steps, looking and feeling like a contestant for a three-legged race. Together they half walked, half hopped toward the flashlight, Amora stooping to grab it once they were beside it. She shone the light on them to see what exactly had happened. Amora and Loki stood in silence as they inspected, what appeared to be, a light blue sticky substance of some sort connecting both of them together. Loki’s right side, arm, and part of his back were stuck to Amora’s left side. There was also a small patch of the same sticky substance connecting Loki’s left arm to his body, leaving both of his arms completely immobile. The medallion was stuck fast in the center, between both Asgardians.

Loki and Amora looked at each other in confused bewilderment, Loki trying to move his right arm but failing. Amora struggled to move her left arm, but couldn’t.

“The trickster tricked by a medallion?? This isn’t fair!” Loki whined pitifully, trying again to move his arms. “You did research. What kind of medallion WAS that?!” 

“Just… a magical medallion. It’s supposed to be one of the most powerful mystical charms in the Nine Realms. The ancient writings said nothing about this!”

“Next time, check the fine print. Ya know, underneath where it says ‘Made in China’ and ‘Batteries not included’.”

“ARGH!!” Amora twisted and turned trying to get loose of the goo, but the more she struggled the tighter it bonded.

“Wait, let me try something.” said Loki as he moved closer to the column on his left. Carefully, he wrapped his legs around the base of it and held on as tight as he could under the circumstances. “Okay, now pull!” Amora pulled to the right while Loki kept a firm hold on the column and pulled himself forward, toward it, until his face was flat against it. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes as he strained to keep his grip from slipping. It proved to be harder than either of them expected. The sticky substance stuck like glue and stretched like gum, the forceful pull of it finally pulling the trickster’s legs loose of the stone column.

“Aieeeeeeeeeeeee!!!” Loki screamed as he was violently jerked backwards and slammed into Amora hard enough to knock both of them rolling onto the floor.

“Oh, snap!” Loki muttered, his feet kicking in mid-air like an overturned wind-up toy.

“Umph… Do you mind?” Amora grunted, trying to inch her way out from underneath Loki and regain her footing. It was nearly impossible. “You’re certainly heavier than you look. You might want to think about slowing up on the junk food and dropping a few pounds if we ever get out of this mess.”

“Hey, let’s not get personal. I eat what I want.”

“Well, can you at least shift into something small?”

Loki struggled to regain his senses and tried shifting into a small animal. Grunting, gasping, and straining, Loki’s form partly melted into something a kin to a bird shape before poofing back to his original self. He sighed.

“Does that answer your question? This stuff is too tight! My shifting can’t work. And my hands are bound too tight to use any of my other magic.”

Amora lifted her right hand and shot the sticky solution with a beam of her magic. The solution was unfazed, much to her and Loki’s disappointment. The Enchantress tried a few one-handed spells, but no matter what she did the sticky goop remained. Nothing seemed to work at removing its hold. If anything, the goop tightened.

“Any other ideas, Enchantress?” Loki asked through gritted teeth, the tone of his voice clearly telling Amora that he was fast becoming annoyed. She knew that the trickster hated being confined, so this situation must have been devastating for him. In a way, it brought a slight smile of satisfaction to her lips.

“Amputate something?”

“That might work. Wait. Wha?? NO!” Loki shook his head.

“Hey, you asked for ideas. You didn’t say to be specific.”

Loki tried to keep his temper under control. “There’s got to be something around here that we can use to get this stuff off. It’s clear that our magic won’t work on it, but maybe this Doctor Strange has something we could use. I mean, after all, it was… his… medallion. Maybe he knows more about it than we do.”

“Meaning…?”

“We walk around his house until we find something.” Loki pulled himself forward only to be jerked back into place when Amora refused to move with him.

“Walk around this house in our state? Have you lost what little mind you had to begin with, trickster? Have you seen this house?!” Amora tried moving her left arm again, hoping that by some miracle it would decide to come loose. “It’s a death trap. One wrong move and you could be spiraling down a trap door to who knows where. You should already know that after you disappeared into that chest.”

“So you’re saying we could end up being… stuck… together forever?” Loki snickered.

“Please do not remind me of that frightening thought.”

Loki grinned innocently and made a kissy face at her.

Amora rolled her eyes. At this point she silently admitted to herself that she would do just about anything if it meant she could get herself away from Loki. She didn’t know for how much longer she could stand being attached to him. She hoped that the goop wasn’t permanent.

“Awww, don’t you want to be stuck to me forever?” Loki put on his best puppy face. “I can be really cute.” 

Amora wrinkled her nose, feeling like she might be sick. “Okay, fine! We’ll carefully walk around and see if there’s something we can use, but I won’t be held responsible if we end up in some other dimension.” She stooped to pick up her flashlight again. Together, the two walked around the room they were currently in and inspected each mystical charm on the pedestals, eventually stopping in front of, what looked like, a cookie jar.

“Lift the lid and see what’s inside.” Loki prodded.

“What we need is a spell book, not something you can scoop out of a jar.”

“Open it anyway. It doesn’t hurt to look.”

Despite having a bad feeling churning inside the pit of her stomach, Amora lifted her free hand and took the lid off, unleashing the small chamber of horrors that had been nestled inside. Technicolor ghosts streamed out of the jar’s opening and flew around the room while screeching and shrieking like banshees. Loki and Amora screamed and tried running in opposite directions, completely forgetting that they were linked together in the middle. The goo stretched between them like a rubber band, jerking them off their feet and snapping back together with a sickening, painful thud. They ducked when a green ghost swooped down on them and back up toward the ceiling to join the rest of the rainbow ghoulish specters.

“You just HAD to open that jar!” said Loki, fighting to get on his feet again. He ducked again when an orange ghost came near him before turning at the last minute to go to the right.

“Excuse me? YOU’RE the one who told me to open it, and now you’re blaming me??” she moved her head to allow a purple ghost by. “We wouldn’t even be IN this mess if it weren’t for YOU!”

“Wh—what?? All of this is MY fault? How?”

They ducked again when a blue ghost took a dive at them. Without answering, Amora quickly got to her feet and pulled Loki up with her. Taking the lead, she ran toward the nearest door as fast as she could while dragging Loki along with her. Specters of every color swooped and flew around them, cackling and screeching all the while. They ducked yet again when green and red ghosts swooped over their heads.

When Amora and Loki were safely on the other side and the door was shut, they took a moment to catch their breath and regain their senses.

The Enchantress raised her free hand and slapped Loki hard across the face.

“OW!” The trickster turned a quizzical, shocked look to her, looking for all the world like he might cry. “What…?”

“That was for getting us into this.” Amora glared. “Be glad that I don’t have use of both of my hands right now or you would be in more pain than that.”

Loki’s bottom lip trembled as he was jostled around by Amora’s movements. The sorceress stood and listened at the door. She could hear the ghosts still shrieking and swarming around the room on the other side.

“What I don’t understand is why haven’t we seen Doctor Strange? We’ve made enough noise to rouse the sorcerer, but why hasn’t he come to investigate?”

Loki gave a shrug of his shoulders. “Dance party with the Squaddies?”

Amora shot Loki a glare, which made the trickster flinch as if he expected another slap. Sighing, she turned around to look down each side of the hallway. Try as she might, she couldn’t remember exactly which room she had used to enter the Sanctorum. She wasn’t even sure if they were in the right hall. The décor was the same creepy statues and whatnot, but some of it looked different from what she remembered. All of the confusion scrambled her mind so much that she wasn’t positive she had exited through the same door she used to get into the room in the first place. This was Strange’s house. Even if she had exited out the right door, it didn’t mean that everything had remained the same.

“I can’t remember which room I came in through.” she finally admitted aloud, again glancing to her left.

“That’s great,” Loki grumbled. “What do we do, then? Try every door until we find the right one?”

“It’s too risky. There’s no telling what we might run across.” Amora frowned. “We tried that already with the magic items. I’m not falling for you telling me to do that again.”

“This is different. I mean, how bad can looking in each room be?” Loki pulled Amora across the hall to the door opposite and nodded for her to open it. “You either find a bedroom, a bathroom, or some other kind of room.”

“You really don’t know this guy, do you?” Sighing, she took hold of the doorknob and pushed. What lay before them wasn’t a room at all, but rather a vast wasteland full of volcanoes and bubbling, molten lava.

Amora quickly closed the door.

“Oh, yeah, that looked so much like a bathroom.” Amora said sarcastically as she started walking down the hall to the next door, dragging Loki with her.

“That was a bathroom?” Loki blinked, not exactly sure what he had seen. Had it been another dimension or did this Doctor Strange actually keep a whole planet in a room of his house?

When they were standing in front of another door, Amora grabbed the doorknob and very carefully pushed it open. She made a mental note to be extra cautious since these rooms apparently could be on the dangerous side. She didn’t relish the thought of coming upon something that would end the both of them faster than she could slam the door shut.

What met them this time was utter darkness. At first, the Enchantress thought it was simply a room with the lights off. But the light from her flashlight didn’t highlight anything inside. The stream of light went out before them and was eventually lost in the void, as if the room went on and on without any sort of end. There was no furniture, no windows, no nothing. And that’s when she suddenly realized that there were also no walls, ceiling, or… floor. They were looking at a bottomless drop into black nothingness.

Loki looked down and saw that his feet were partly sticking over the edge of the hallway floor they were standing on. He emitted a yelp and scrambled to pull himself away from the impending doom that lay just below.

“We’re gonna die!!” Loki screamed. “I… think I just wet myself…”

“More info than I needed to know.” said Amora, closing the door before the trickster had a nervous breakdown or something.

“So we either burn to a crisp or spend the rest of our lives falling through a big dark void.” Loki blurted out. “Should be fun. What’s behind door number three?”

Amora once again dragged Loki down the hallway until they found the next door. She opened it without bothering to comment on Loki’s humor. What they saw this time was a large room that looked like an old medieval stone dungeon. The only light, aside from Amora’s flashlight, came from torches hanging on the walls. But the appearance of the place was not the concerning part about this particular room. Lying in the middle of the wide open space was a huge, grotesque monster of unknown identity. It was a dark grey color and had spiny hairs sticking up in places all along its hunched back, making it appear to be some sort of grossly deformed wild pig crossed with a dragon. Its long, gnarly snout was occupied with gnawing on a large bone. The bone only kept its attention for so long, though. The moment it caught sight of the intruders, it dropped the bone and opened its mouth to reveal impressive rows of razor sharp teeth and let out a massive roar that shook the walls. Both Amora and Loki screamed in unison as Amora struggled to slam the door shut. When it was safely closed, they could feel the impact of the creature coming in contact with the door, but strangely enough it didn’t seem like the creature could get out of the room no matter how much it clawed and bashed itself against the door.

“Door number three,” Loki shakily breathed out in-between huge intakes of air, “Get eaten by a monster from the Id.” He stepped away from the door. “This doctor sure keeps some strange pets.”

Amora quickly turned to walk over to another door, but stopped herself before she turned the knob. A part of her didn’t want to see what was on the other side, but another part of her was getting desperate to get out of the place. She squeezed the knob and turned it, cracking the door open just a bit so she could peek through. She blinked a few times and opened the door wider. Loki pushed his way past her to get a look.

“Whoa…” Loki breathed. Before them lay the vastness of space. Millions and billions of stars, galaxies, nebulas, suns, moons, and planets painted a black canvas. Everything glittered and shone in brilliant colors and hues like a sea of precious jewels.

“It’s beautiful,” Amora breathed out, barely above a whisper. Loki nodded silently. Neither of them could imagine having something like this nestled inside your house where you could just open a door anytime you wanted and gaze at the brilliance and beauty from the comfort of home while eating popcorn. Slowly, Amora closed the door and turned around to face the other side of the hallway.

“If you can’t shapeshift,” she began after a long silence, “can you use your teleportation to get us out of here?”

“I—I guess, but…”

“Then do it!”

“But what about finding a solution to getting us unstuck?” Loki moved restlessly.

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything in this house that can help us. I wouldn’t even know where to look and you’ve seen what we’ve ran into by looking in each room. We could be here forever trying to find what we’re looking for, and trying to find a way out for that matter. Like I told you, this house is too dangerous. We need to get out of here and think of something else.”

“Maybe the Squaddies could help us?” Loki whimpered.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Just a suggestion…” Loki stated smugly. “It’s not like we have a choice, Enchantress, unless you have a better idea than the ones we’ve had so far.”

“If none of our magic can get us unstuck, then why do you think the Squaddies will be able to do better? They don’t wield magic. You need magic to get this stuff off.”

“So you’re saying that we need this Doctor Strange to help us?”

“As much as I hate to admit it… yes,” Amora sighed, turning her gaze elsewhere.

“If he isn’t here at home, then the Squaddies might know where to find him.”

“You would ask Thor for help?”

“Well…” Loki thought a moment. “We don’t have to ask him specifically. Just the others.”

Amora rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Just teleport us out of this mad house before we go mad. At the moment, I could care less where you teleport us to.”

Loki grabbed Amora’s hand, interlacing his fingers with hers.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, looking down at feeling his touch.

“Do you want out of here or not?” Loki turned an annoyed look at the sorceress. “I’ve never actually teleported someone along with myself before, okay? I’m not even sure this will work. I’m just securing us together more.”

“Like the goop bonding us together isn’t enough?” Amora raised an eyebrow.

Loki ignored her and activated his teleportation, both of them disappearing in a blink.


	3. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Unsticking Asgardians

It had been a very stressful, hectic day for the Squaddies. Doctor Doom, MODOK, and Abomination found the location of another fractal piece. It had been stuck in some elderly woman’s toaster. How it got there was anyone’s guess. The whole mission would have gone over fairly easy and quickly if it hadn’t been for the fact that the lady was half deaf and near blind and couldn’t understand what was going on. She thought Doom and the Squaddies both were trying to steal her toaster. The end result: Doctor Doom and his two stooges got away with the toaster and fractal, and the whole Squaddy team was almost beat to death by the woman’s cane. The bad guys got away and they all came out of it with bruises on top of bruises. Well, except for fortunate Wolverine and his healing factor.

Everyone aboard the helicarrier was enjoying a hard earned night’s rest. Everyone, that is, except for Iron Man. He walked down one of the dark halls, careful not to wake up the others. He was dressed in full armor with a house robe on top of it. Yawning, he entered the main room and took a seat on one of the sofas while reaching to pick up the TV remote.

“Fine time to get insomnia.” he grumbled aloud to himself, flipping through channels. As usual, there was nothing good on to watch at that unearthly hour of the morning, except for infomercials. And there was good reason. All the normal people were fast sleep in their beds. Iron Man sighed wearily, settling for watching an infomercial about some new electronic cheese grater with a built-in iPod. Although, Iron Man found himself barely paying attention to it as he sat there, his eyelids finally beginning to droop. He always knew that infomercials were so boring that they would put you to sleep.

Suddenly there was a flash and Loki and Amora appeared on top of the coffee table between Iron Man and the TV. Both were struggling to keep their balance as the effects of teleportation wore off. Loki was used to it, but Amora wasn’t. It took her a few seconds to regain her equilibrium. The goo connecting them together didn’t help matters any.

“What the?—Amora and Loki?” Iron Man jumped up from the couch, looking dumbfounded and speechless at the sight before him. “This is just great. After all we’ve been through today; you two sure have the nerve showing up here.” He tore off his robe and threw it on the floor and prepared to do battle. He stopped, though, when the two bad guys made no attempts to attack. He tilted his head to the side and watched as Loki and Amora argued and struggled with each other, not really paying attention to the hero in front of them. Iron Man slowly lowered his hands. For the first time since they appeared, he caught sight of the blue goop connecting the two Asgardians and realized that attacking the helicarrier probably wasn’t the first item on their agenda at that current moment. “What happened to you? You look like you fell into the world’s biggest bubblegum wad. Wow! Imagine finding that stuck under your seat at the theater. Ew!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Loki sneered. He then shot Amora a glare when she roughly bumped him. “Stop moving around, you’re making it worse!”

“I can’t help it!” Amora snapped back. “This stuff is becoming uncomfortable.” She turned to look at Iron Man. “We kind of got ourselves into a mess—a very big mess.”

“I can see that. And how, exactly, did you get into this… mess?” Iron Man raised an eyebrow as he studied the blue goop, more specifically the shiny gold medallion stuck in the center of the goo.

“That’s the part you aren’t gonna like, I’m afraid.” Loki answered. “But we’ll tell ya all about it later. Right now we need your help getting us unstuck.”

“Uh-huh,” Iron Man didn’t bother to comment on the medallion, but could easily suspect the two tried stealing something. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be sorcerers or wizards or something? Can’t you, like, just use your Asgardian magic to hocus-pocus and abracadabra your way out of it?” Iron Man wiggled his fingers for effect.

“We’ve already tried it! Our magic won’t work.” Amora sighed wearily.

“Nothing works,” Loki added. “And my arm is going to sleep. Can you forget about us being bad guys for tonight and help us out of this?” He smiled innocently.

Iron Man moved to help the two down from the coffee table. Carefully he stretched out a finger to poke the goop, hoping he wouldn’t get stuck to it, too. It wiggled and stretched like rubber but didn’t appear sticky.

“Hm, it must have been sticky at first and bonded on contact before solidifying. It seems solid and dry enough now.” Iron Man mused as he studied it closer. “It should be easy enough to cut through using a simple blade.”

“Cut through this?” said Amora. “Are you kidding? Watch,” Amora leaned to the right while Loki leaned to the left, showing Iron Man how the goop stretched between them like rubbery glue. Loki lost his footing and came slamming back into Amora hard.

“Ouch!” The Enchantress shouted.

“Owwwwww…” Loki groaned. “I want out of this! I can’t take it anymore!”

“Aw, is the baby prince going to start crying?” Amora smirked. Loki scowled at the remark. With an amused smirk, the sorceress turned her attention back to Iron Man. “The point is, mortal, if you think it can be cut, wouldn’t we be able to tear our way out of it?”

Iron Man gave a shrug. “Depends on what this stuff is. If it’s some kind of bonding adhesive, it could be made to hold tight no matter what you use on it. If that’s the case, then you’d need something special to dissolve it.” He silently noted that the Asgardians didn’t look all that encouraged as he walked over to the wall and pushed a button for the helicarrier’s comm. system and calmly called all of the Squaddies to come to the main room. He didn’t bother telling them the reason. He wasn’t sure how to explain that part, and he figured they would find out soon enough anyway.

It didn’t take long for the Squaddies to come filing through the doorway while being dressed in an odd assortment of their normal signature suits, masks, pajamas, robes, and house shoes. Everyone slowly and sleepily gathered in the main room, the strange and startling sight of Loki and Amora stuck together quickly snapping them awake. The Hulk lumbered in last while munching on a sandwich, like he had already been awake, raiding the kitchen. When his eyes landed on Loki and Amora, he stopped eating and his face scrunched up in an angry scowl.

“What Bad Magic Lady and Goat Boy doing here?” he said, pointing a finger at them. His appearance looked frightening enough, but it lost its threatening air quickly when the big green giant released a rather loud belch before continuing to munch on the sandwich in his hand.

“Goat Boy?” Loki wrinkled his nose, miffed by the remark.

“Odin’s beard! Brother, what madness be this!?” Thor asked while quickly walking over to Loki. “What have you gotten yourself into this time?”

The mighty Prince of Thunder was dressed in red pajamas and nightcap decorated with large white polka dots—blue bunny slippers on his feet. Loki grimaced. But he wasn’t sure if it was from Thor’s choice of nightwear or the fact that his brother had seen him helplessly stuck in a wad of goo like a complete failure. It was probably a mixture of both. He had hoped to avoid any contact with Thor, but knew it would probably be impossible.

“Hmph! None of your business.” said Loki, sticking his tongue out. He took another glance at Thor’s feet and smirked amusingly. “Cute slippers, bro,”

“Doest thou think so?” Thor looked down at his slippers. “I was thinking they clashed with this particular set of jammies.”

“Thor,” Iron Man cut in. “Seriously?”

“Oh, right,” Thor looked up and scowled at Loki again.

“Your brother and his girlfriend have come to us for help.” Iron Man said, getting the group back on the problem before them. “It appears like they’ve gotten themselves in a… sticky… situation.”

“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” Amora sighed. “And he isn’t my boyfriend!”

“Yeah, she’s too ugly.” Loki smiled with a chuckle. Amora stomped his foot, causing him to yelp. Both stared daggers at each other.

“Okay, okay, we’ll help. Just… chill, alright?” Iron Man held up his hands to calm the tension that was quickly building. His head was already aching from the earlier events of the day and lack of sleep. “We don’t need you killing each other tonight.”

“How did this even happen?” Falcon asked, scratching the back of his neck. “And what IS that stuff?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Iron Man added. All of the Squaddies turned to the bad guys, awaiting an explanation. Loki and Amora turned their gaze to the floor, seeming to be ashamed to even say.

“Come on, you’re both bad guys,” Wolverine grumbled. “It’s not like we wouldn’t be surprised.”

“And might I also point out the glittery necklace hanging there.” said Iron Man, pointing at the medallion.

“Ooooo, shiny,” said Hulk.

“I’m not a bad guy…” said Loki innocently.

“It would help if we knew what we’re dealing with here.” said Iron Man.

“It’s not my fault! I’m innocent!” Loki blurted out, sniveling. “It was her idea!”

Amora rolled her eyes. “I tried to steal a magical medallion from Doctor Strange’s house. Everything was going according to plan until this idiot here ruined it by getting there before me. We fought over the medallion and… ended up like this. Something went wrong. I don’t know what. The medallion reacted to our battle.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Loki snapped.

“Yes it was! If you hadn’t interfered I would have grabbed the medallion and gotten out of there with no problem! And we wouldn’t be standing here like we are now!”

“Any—waaaay…We tried to find something inside the doctor’s house to get us unstuck… but…” Loki titled his head to the side, his voice trailing off.

“We got lost.” Amora finished for him, “And unleashed a bunch of ghosts.”

“It’s been a bad night.” Loki whined.

Iron Man stifled a chuckle.

“So you’re saying the medallion caused this?” Falcon asked with a grin.

“Yes,”

“THAT medallion, right there?” Falcon pointed at the gold disc hanging by a chain that was stuck in the goop.

Loki and Amora nodded simultaneously.

“What sort of medallion is this?” asked the Silver Surfer.

“It’s just an old magical medallion!” The Enchantress sounded frustrated. “I didn’t know it was capable of anything like this.”

“If it’s magical, then it’s safe to say that it’s capable of anything.” said Iron Man. “Which is why I hate magic.”

“If the medallion was the cause of it then what makes you think we’ll be able to help get you out of it?” Wolverine activated his claws.

“Because we don’t have any other choice?” Loki smiled, blushing. “Ya know; this is embarrassing enough as it is.”

Without another word, Wolverine took the first try, walking forward and slashing at the goop with all of his claws. He slashed it at least ten or more times before stopping and backing away to look at his handiwork. His claws were sharp enough to cut through just about anything, but as he looked at the goop he saw that it didn’t have a scratch on it.

“What??” he said. “That’s impossible. My claws have always been able to cut through anything!”

“Told you,” said Amora. “Nothing you do will work.”

Iron Man raised his hands and shot several blasts at it. Falcon and Silver Surfer followed suite. They shot individually and together. Nothing they did phased the stuff. Finally Iron Man brought out a sawing device and began to cut away, careful to avoid the medallion itself. It was probably forty minutes before Iron Man turned off the saw and stepped away. Once again, the goop was unharmed. He shook his head in amazement.

“That is some tough stuff, I’m telling you.” Iron Man shook his head again, “Just think of the armor I could make out of it. I wouldn’t have to worry about it being damaged again for the rest of my life.”

“Can you… sort of hurry up? I’m feeling like a trip to the little boy’s room.” Loki grinned sheepishly.

“Don’t you just wish some of this goop had fallen across his mouth?” said Amora dryly. Loki shot her a glare.

“Allow me,” said Thor, beginning to swing his hammer. “I, Thor, shall rid thee of this troublesome sticky substance.” As he swung Mjolnir in a loop, lightning started to dance around it and Thor’s hand.

Amora and Loki both went pale as they watched the hammer pick up speed. They knew what was coming and braced themselves. Thor gripped the handle and swung Mjolnir down hard with a crackling ‘Wham!’ It hit the goop head-on, bolts of lighting raining down all around the three Asgardians, causing the other Squaddies to step back. The lightning’s power succeeded in electrocuting Amora and Loki before throwing them across the room and straight into the wall. They fell to the floor, leaving a hole shaped like them behind.

“Aw, Thor, look what you did to the wall. And we just got this thing fixed not too long ago.” said Iron Man.

“Ooops, sorry,”

“Thanks a lot for being concerned about us.” Amora groaned, her hair still smoking.

“It’s okay. I’m all right.” Loki mumbled. “I’m used to it. Growing up with him, one sort of gets used to it…”

The goop was, as usual, unharmed. By now none of the Squaddies knew what to do to get them unstuck. Iron Man and the Silver Surfer helped Amora and Loki to stand again as they thought about what they could try next.

“We could try blasting them out.” Wolverine suggested.

“With dynamite?” said Falcon, a bit worried. Redwing moved uneasily on his shoulder.

“Of course with dynamite,” Wolverine growled. “What else would you use to blast?”

Loki and Amora didn’t like that idea and shook their heads vigorously in protest.

“I say thee nay!” Thor piped up. “Loki may be a spoiled brat and a troublesome child, but he is still my brother. And you will not harm him.”

“Meh, Thor’s right. They might be pains in our backsides sometimes, but we don’t want to kill them.” Iron Man smiled. “Amora’s too good looking.” he added quickly.

Amora and Loki visibly relaxed.

“Move out of way, puny girls. Hulk got this!” The Hulk pushed his way to the front of the Squaddies, cracking his knuckles and flexing his fingers. Up until now, the Hulk had been content to watch the show while finishing up his sandwich. Now he was ready to give this whole smash-the-goop thing a try.

Loki’s stomach felt to drop to the soles of his feet and his eyes widened to ten times their normal size at seeing the large green guy approach.

“W—w—wait! There’s gotta be a better way of doing this!” the trickster stuttered, swallowing hard and trying to back away.

“If you can think of a better way, by all means let us know.” Iron Man said coolly. “Go ahead, Hulk, give it your best shot.”

Loki whimpered as he eyed the Hulk’s clenching fists. “Oh, mama, this is gonna hurt.” He closed his eyes and scrunched up his face in anticipation of the blow. He knew what it felt like to get hit by the Hulk and he didn’t like the idea of feeling it again.

“Hulk smash goo!” he yelled before raising both fists and bringing them down hard on the blue goop with a tremendous blow, hard enough to crack the floor. The goo was unharmed. The Hulk snorted and breathed furiously, gritting his teeth. He lifted his fists and again brought them down, before doing it two more times. Each time the goo appeared untouched, making it the toughest substance on the face of the earth.

The Hulk roared in frustration. Loki whimpered. Before anyone knew what had happened, the Hulk reached and snatched up Loki in one hand and Amora in the other and with all of his strength pulled them in opposite directions as hard as he could. The goop in the center stretched between them like chewing gum, but no matter how far apart the Hulk pulled the two apart, the goop continued to bind them together. Hulk let go of Amora, the goop retracted, and she flew backwards and slammed into Loki.

“I’m getting tired of you slamming into me.” Loki grunted in pain.

“How do you think I feel?” Amora replied.

The Hulk put both of them down on the floor and glared angrily at them. “Goo not stronger than Hulk. Hulk strongest there is!” He was about to bring his fists down again, but Iron Man quickly jumped between Hulk and the Asgardians.

“Whoa, big guy! That’s okay. We’ll find another method of getting them unstuck.”

The Hulk backed down and walked away, grumbling. “Hulk strongest. Goo not.”

Iron Man and everyone else sighed in relief.

“Guys, what if this stuff isn’t the medallion’s fault?” said Falcon.

“Meaning…?” Wolverine prodded.

“It might be the work of Doctor Strange. You know… one of his spells.”

“You mean like a booby trap?” said Iron Man.

“Exactly!”

“Hm, I never thought of that. You know. You could be right.” Iron Man mused. “If that’s the case then we’re in trouble.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” said Amora.

“If this stuff IS his spell, then only he can undo it.” said Iron Man, crossing his arms over his chest.

“And that’s a problem… how?” Amora raised an eyebrow.

“Doctor Strange is on vacation in another dimension by now. He left tonight and left us in charge of looking in on his house until he gets back… in about two weeks.”

Loki and Amora groaned.


	4. Doctor Strange Makes a House Call

Loki and Amora shifted uncomfortably, the goop feeling tighter than ever since the Squaddies had been pounding and shooting at it. The news of Doctor Strange being away on vacation hadn’t settled well with them… at all. Amora, especially, was about to crack. She couldn’t bear the thought of being stuck to Loki for two weeks!

“I knew there was something wrong when he never came to investigate the noise we made.” Amora sighed. “How can he be on vacation at a time like this?”

“I’m pretty sure he wasn’t expecting anyone to… get into this sort of situation… while he was away.” said Iron Man.

“So what do we do with them?” the Silver Surfer asked. “Clearly they can not stay here.”

“And we can’t break through this stuff… whatever it is.” Wolverine added, giving the goop another swipe with his claws. “If it holds up under the Hulk’s strength, there’s not much else we can do.”

“Goo NOT stronger than Hulk!” Hulk roared.

“I can take them back to Asgard and let Father deal with them.” said Thor.

“It’s tempting, Thor, but we’ve first got to get them unstuck.” Iron Man replied. “If you can’t break through with your hammer, I doubt anyone in Asgard will be able to.”

“Hmph… You may be right.” Thor said with a sigh.

Everyone started talking at once as Iron Man stood and thought. There was only one other solution, but he hated to do it. Still, they couldn’t leave Loki and Amora like they were, especially not for two weeks. That would be cruel. Not to mention they would have to stay on the helicarrier until Strange returned, and he didn’t think they would be able to put up with them for that long. Iron Man cringed at the thought. They could barely get along with each other some days. He couldn’t imagine a couple of bad guys thrown into the mix. By the time they got to the second week, they’d all probably be tempted to strangle each other.

“Hey,” said Iron Man at last, “Hey, guys!” The other Squaddies fell silent and turned their attention toward him. “Dr. Stephen Strange did give me a number to call in case there was ever an emergency where we needed his help. The question is… Does this qualify as an emergency?”

“YES!” Loki and Amora shouted together, taking the others somewhat by surprise.

“I mean, I hate to interrupt his vacation.” Iron Man turned back to his teammates. “But it’s sort of obvious that we aren’t going to get this stuff off without his help. We’re wasting time just standing around here.”

“Time we could be spending sleeping.” Wolverine grumbled before yawning.

“Well, we either interrupt his vacation or we live with those two for the next several weeks.” said Falcon.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” Iron Man mused.

“I don’t think any of us like the second choice,” Falcon continued, “No offense, Thor. Since… you know… Loki’s your brother and all. I mean, you grew up together…”

“No offense taken,” Thor nodded, glancing in Loki’s direction, “My brother doth take some getting used to. Though, he wasn’t always like this.”

“Look who’s talking.” Loki glared at Thor. “You’re the one who snores loudly.”

“I say it’s definitely an emergency.” said Wolverine, not liking the idea of Loki and Amora staying with them on the helicarrier for that long. “Call him.”

 

Almost immediately after Iron Man called the number Strange had left him, a weird distortion rippled the air and a portal opened in the main room of the helicarrier, not more than eight feet away from the Squaddies. It hovered a few moments before a fuzzy shape appeared and out stepped Doctor Strange, the portal closing behind him. Instead of his normal clothes and Cloak of Levitation, he wore a blue and white Hawaiian shirt, tan khaki shorts, sandals, and a pair of metallic lens sunglasses. The Eye of Agamotto hung on a gold chain around his neck. He looked like he had just stepped off a sunny beach in Florida or the Bahamas.

“Greetings and salutations,” said Strange, taking his sunglasses off and placing them on top of his head. “What’s the emergency? Did Dormammu somehow escape again?”

“Uh… not exactly…” Wolverine looked to Iron Man.

“We’re really sorry to interrupt your vacation, Doc, but… uh… Bonnie and Clyde over there need to get unstuck.” Iron Man gestured over his shoulder at Amora and Loki. Dr. Strange looked past Iron Man, his eyebrows lifting when he saw what he was pointing at.

“Wha—what is the meaning of this?” Strange asked, taking a couple of steps forward. “Is—is that my medallion?”

“I’m afraid it is, Stephen.” Iron Man filled Dr. Stephen in on everything that had happened up until that point, Loki and Amora helping to tell their side of the story, as much as it pained them to admit their doings.

“So, I see that someone found my security alarm.” Strange said, once Iron Man finished. He turned and eyed Loki and Amora. His gaze was withering, but at the same time there was a hint of amusement in his green eyes as he fought back a laugh at the sight before him.

“Security alarm?” Loki repeated.

“Certainly,” Strange nodded. “Since the medallion is one of my most valuable magic items, I had to have some form of security for it in case thieves tried to steal it. It’s nice to know that my alarm works exceedingly well.”

“So this IS one of your spells?” Amora asked.

Strange chuckled. “Yes, of course.”

“I knew it!” Falcon beamed.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Amora fumed, “Get us out of this!”

“Why should I?” Strange smirked. “You’re the ones who broke into my house to steal the medallion. Why should I let you out of the mess you put yourselves into?”

“Uhhhhh…” Loki was, for once, at a loss for words.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t throw you into the depths of the darkest dimension I know of.”

“Would it help if we said we’re sorry?” Loki whimpered.

Amora just sighed.

“It might,” Strange answered.

“I’m sorry, then.” said Loki, “Even though it wasn’t my fault.” When Amora stayed silent, Loki gave her a nudge.

“Sorry,” she mumbled under her breath, refusing to even look at Dr. Strange.

Smiling, Doctor Strange walked over and grabbed hold of the goop as if it were the normal thing to do. He gave it a hard tug and began peeling it off like one would peel an orange. The stuff easily came off as if it were a bed sheet. He took it and wadded it up in the palms of his hands and kneaded it like a big ball of squishy dough, pulling the medallion out of it and placing it around his neck. Loki and Amora sighed in relief to finally be free of their confinement, immediately collapsing to the floor and going to work rubbing the circulation back into their numb body parts.

“You have no idea how good it feels to finally be free!” Amora stretched.

“You don’t know how it feels to have control of both arms again.” said Loki.

“How… how did you do that? We tried everything we could think of to break that stuff!” Iron Man said, a stunned expression on his face.

Strange held out the goo wad. “Simple enough. It’s, what I call, sorcerer’s play dough. It has the consistency of soft clay when it’s in the hands of the person who makes a batch, but it sticks and bonds like glue to anyone else, making it impossible to get out of if you happen to be trapped in it. It’s totally indestructible.”

“I can believe that.” said Iron Man.

“Can I poke it?” Falcon asked. 

“Be my guest,” Strange held it out toward him. Somewhat hesitant, Falcon put a finger on it. Since it looked so soft and squishy in the hands of the sorcerer, he expected to feel his finger sink into it. But what he felt was a surprise. The ball of clay felt hard and rubbery, the same as it had felt while bonding the two Asgardians together.

“Very interesting substance you have there, Doc,” Iron Man rapped his knuckles on it. “You could probably use it for more than security alarms for magical items.”

“True,” Strange smiled as he curled his fingers together, causing the wad of goo to disappear in a puff of smoke. “Well, I must be off. I still have my vacation waiting for me. And by the looks of everyone in this room, you have sleeping to do.”

“What we do with them?” the Hulk asked, pointing to Amora and Loki.

Doctor Strange smiled deviously. “I think I have some place I can put those two. I’ll accept their apology, but they still have a debt to pay in the form of repairing the damage they did to my house and rounding up the ghosts they let loose.”

Amora and Loki swallowed hard and glanced at each other, not liking the sound of their punishment.

Before everyone knew what had happened, Doctor Strange grabbed both Loki and Amora by the shoulders, a portal opened up behind them, and Doctor Strange disappeared through it with the two Asgardians in tow.

“I guess that takes care of that.” said Silver Surfer.

“I guess it does.” said Iron Man. “It’s certainly been a strange night.”

Everyone snickered.

“That wasn’t meant to be a pun.”

 

-End


End file.
